The visit of Japan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Fumio Kishida to Russia, scheduled to late April, has been postponed.

New dates will be additionally agreed upon. The information comes from an official representative of the MFA of the Russian Federation Aleksandr Lukashevich on Thursday as he answered the question on this visit. Immediately after the referendum in Crimea the Japanese minister assured that despite the situation over the region’s joining Russia, he was not going to refuse from the visit to Moscow and negations on this topic with his colleague Sergei Lavrov.

“The possibility of holding another sitting of Russia-Japan intergovernmental commission on trade and economic issues at this time was actually discussed. The minister Fumio Kishida is a co-chairman of the commission”, - reported Lukashevich, whose answer has been published on the Russian MFA’s web-site. The diplomat pointed out that “however, by mutual agreement in the context of schedule refinement of the bilateral contacts it has been decided to reschedule the sitting”.

The specific date of the event has not yet been reported.

The visit of the Japanese minister has been postponed with a sharp aggravation in the east of Ukraine in the background. The authorities are carrying out an anti-terrorism operation there hours before the start of four-party negotiations on the topic in Geneva with the participation of Ukraine, USA, EU and Russia, the Reuters news agency points out.